Regional News

Indiana University Maurer School of Law Dean Lauren Robel has been named interim provost for IU’s Bloomington campus.
She’s filling the role temporarily until a replacement can be found for Karen Hanson, who is leaving in January to become
senior vice president and provost at the University of Minnesota.

In an appeal from a man convicted of Class B dealing in methamphetamine and Class B misdemeanor visiting a common nuisance,
the Indiana Court of Appeals has held that photos of a methamphetamine lab were admissible because the physical evidence had
been destroyed.

A woman who challenged the Housing Authority of South Bend’s decision to terminate her lease for federally subsidized
public housing because of criminal activity lost her appeal before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications has admonished a Marion Superior judge for mailing a questionable re-election
fundraising flyer that it says put the judiciary in a negative light and implied that justice is for sale.

Underground aquifers are “watercourses” as defined by state law and as a result the Indiana Supreme Court says
community officials have the ability to reasonably regulate how that water is taken out and used by other local governments.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled a trial court erred in calculating credit for time served but found the record was
insufficient to prove that additional credit time should be awarded for the defendant’s participation in a drug-treatment
program.

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended a Logansport attorney for one year because he routinely allowed his secretary to prepare
and sign his name on bankruptcy petitions and other court documents, including one petition that she mistakenly filed in the
wrong District.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has ordered a new probation revocation hearing for a Wells County man after finding the reasons
by the special judge as to why the man should serve his entire previously suspended sentence were “problematic.”

A victim molested by the former swim coach at an Indianapolis high school and club team is suing the former coach, the school
corporation and two swimming organizations, arguing several people knew of the coach’s past inappropriate contact with
minors and did nothing about it.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller issued a legal opinion Thursday in response to a request by two Indiana legislators
on whether school systems can outsource bus services to another entity that charges parents.

The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with a mother that the Clark Circuit Court erred in finding her in contempt for not putting
her teenage daughter on a plane to Florida to visit the teen’s father over Christmas break. The appellate court did
agree with the trial court that the mom should have to pay for another flight to visit the father.

A woman in Marion County has filed a lawsuit against a community school corporation because she claims the fee imposed for
her children to ride the bus to school interferes with their constitutional right to an education.

Indiana Tax Judge Martha Wentworth denied the Marion County assessor’s motion to dismiss two petitioners' original
tax appeal, finding the parties properly served a copy of the petition with the attorney general’s office.

The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office has reached a plea agreement in a common construction wage violation involving
an Indianapolis contractor, believed to be the first prosecution of this kind in Indiana.

A Jefferson Superior judge erred in giving a jury an instruction on a lesser included offense of domestic battery because
there wasn’t a serious evidentiary dispute about whether the battery was committed in the presence of children, the
Indiana Court of Appeals held Thursday.

A county sheriff’s department that doesn’t own, maintain or control a county road does not owe a common law duty
to warn the public of known hazardous conditions upon the roadway, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday.